Mendenhall: Broadcast Hall of Fame inductee has some stories

Posted: Saturday, February 23, 2002

My friend John Palmer was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame last Wednesday at the Georgia Center. Not many people are aware that John, an NBC News correspondent for many years, resigned just a couple of weeks ago. He and I had worked together at Atlanta's WSB during the 1960s. It was great to see him again and to renew many other old acquaintances from my broadcast days.

Dick

Mendenhall

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Also present at the event was Dr. Sidney Isenberg, one of the most prominent psychiatrists in the South and a mutual friend of John's and mine. Back in the '50s, Sid spent considerable effort trying to keep me from going nuts. So it's no fault of his that it didn't work.

This was the fourth time I had attended a radio-TV event at the center, one being in 1963 when I chaired the first National Broadcast Editorial Conference. Our keynoter was the legendary Howard K. Smith of ABC News, who died earlier this week. Howard not only was a first-class reporter and analyst, but one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

The last time I'd seen John was over lunch during the '80s in New York, where he showed me his office and gave me a tour of the network's news facilities. He was a little upset because, the day before, his small daughter, Carter (named for the former president) had crashed her tricycle into a wall. When the doctor was trying to sew stitches on the child's lips, she threatened to bite him, which caused a heart attack victim nearby to guffaw. Startled, John was afraid the guy might die.

My favorite John Palmer story occurred one night in 1962 when espionage was big in the news. American U-2 pilot Col. Francis Gary Powers, shot down and captured by the Russians two years earlier, suddenly was traded across the Glienieke Bridge in Berlin in exchange for Soviet master spy Rudolf Abel. John had just done the late news at WSB and was about to leave when the teletypes started dinging with the bulletin. John immediately picked up the phone and called Powers' wife, Barbara, who lived down in Milledgeville. A drunken male voice answered, blathering incoherently. So John grabbed a cameraman and a station car, and they high-tailed it to Milledgeville, where the Powers' home was surrounded by cops. Turned out the police presence was related not to the high drama in Berlin, but to a report that the wife of the man visiting Mrs. Powers had threatened the two with a shotgun.

John was allowed into the house, and the camera was set up. He told me they rolled about 400 feet of film trying to get Mrs. Powers to say something, but she kept sliding out of her chair. John predicted the Powers couple would be divorced in about six months -- and they were. In 1977, Col. Powers was killed in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles.

I was relating this tale the other day to my friend "Coot" Smith at the BP service station on Alps Road. "Coot" said he well remembered the whole Francis Gary Powers episode because his son was in Army intelligence in Turkey at the time, along with Col. Powers, and they knew each other.

Also inducted into the GAB Hall of Fame were two other broadcasting professionals, one being the late and beloved Charles Giddens of Southern Broadcasting. I had had the honor of meeting this fine man only once, but it was obvious from the tribute read by my friend Sanders Hickey that he had legions of friends and admirers.

Dick Mendenhall is a journalist and public relations professional. He welcomes your ideas and comments via email at fowellm102@home.com